Winning Appeal
Page 20

He waited for me in the living room while I went into change. I decided to be daring. I found a light, loose cotton mini dress and I slipped it over my head without a scrap on underneath. I found a decently comfortable pair of strappy heels, and with some moisturizer on my legs, and a dab of Jour d’Hermès, on my pulse points I was done.
I did toss some undies in an overnight bag along with some comfy clothes, make-up and necessary toiletries, and I made sure to take my pill. When I came back into the room Mark was examining a painting on my wall. He turned around and his eyes went to my legs.
“That’s one of mine,” I said, wondering what he thought of the explosion of color.
“I know I recognize it,” he said, surprising me. I was about to ask him how when I was distracted. “You look great,” he said letting his gaze travel lazily back up to my eyes, and walking over to kiss me softly on the lips.
“Thanks.” I smiled thinking about how he would react when he found out I wasn’t wearing anything underneath my dress. He took my hand and we left.
When we got to the parking garage, he led me to his car and deactivated the alarm. I confess, I paused to ogle for a moment. That was one hot car.
“This is a classic Karmann Ghia,” I said, lightly running my hand over the hood. “The Karmann Ghia is like the coolest car ever made, and it’s in beautiful condition. What is this, a 1970?” He didn’t reply so I looked up. He was staring at me with a funny look on his face.
“1971,” he answered, still looking at me strangely.
“Are you okay?” I asked, wondering if he was suddenly feeling ill or something.
“Yeah. I’m good. I’m great. I’m just… Let’s go.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were back at his place. I knew he had recently moved, but I hadn’t realized that he had moved into a renovated warehouse in the hip Northern Liberties neighborhood. I was immediately in love with his place. It had bare brick walls and hardwood floors. There was a circular wrought iron staircase leading to a loft overlooking the living room, a modern kitchen underneath the loft was done in black and chrome and the fireplace was made of dark wood.
It was what was hanging over the fireplace that made freeze in my tracks. It was one of my paintings. I had been lucky enough to get a place in a few local gallery showings. This one had been shown a couple of months ago. Like the one in my apartment, it was an abstract explosion of color, but this had words incorporated into the design “art” “music” “live” “breathe” “desire” and “experience.”
“You bought my painting,” I said spinning around and smiling with delight.
“Yeah, bold color is good.” He smiled.
“Bright color is good too,” I said smiling back and feeling my cheeks heat up. I saw him breathe in deeply, and he walked over to me and gently ran his knuckles along my jaw.
“You know, hardly anybody blushes anymore. You’re so beautiful.” He leaned down to kiss me, and my lips parted in anticipation, and then my phone rang.
“I had better see who it is,” I said puzzled at who would be calling me. I grabbed my purse and took my phone out. I didn’t recognize the number and there was no name.
“I’ll go change. I’ll be down in a minute.” He headed for the staircase.
“Hello?”
“Beth, somebody is following me!”
“Caitlin? Is that you? How did you get my number?”
“Beth! I’m serious! There’s somebody following me.”
“Go to the police.”
“I can’t. Look, I want to tell you the whole story.”
“Okay, fine. Come into the office on Monday. In the meanwhile, if you won’t go to the police, go stay with a friend.”
“I don’t have a friend,” she answered.
“What? You… really? Well, go to your place and lock the doors and don’t let anyone in. You’re probably just imagining things, but you should be safe that way. You live in a secure building don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Caitlin… if you need to…” Oh God, don’t do it Beth!
“Oh shit! Are you with Mike? I’m sorry Beth.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey, it will be okay. I’m almost at my place now. I’ll ask the doorman to tell me if anyone weird is hanging around.”
“Okay, come in Monday, but you had better tell me everything.” I paused. “And be careful.”
“Thanks Beth. You’re nice.” With that she hung up. Was she serious, or was she trying to play on my sympathy? Okay, Beth, Mark is upstairs getting ready to get sexy with you. Don’t stand here worrying about whether Caitlin has friends.
As if on cue, Mark came back down the stairs wearing a pair of loose fitting black lounge pants and nothing else. His muscles were hard and defined, but not bulky. He had a sprinkling of hair on his chest, a six-pack and sweet baby Jesus he had that V.
“Did I hear you say that was Caitlin calling you? What did she want?” he asked, walking over to his sound system. He bent down to look for something. My God his ass was magnificent.
“Huh? Oh, uh, she thinks someone’s following her.”
“You’re kidding. Did you tell her to go the cops?” He found his iPod and placed it on the speakers. I recognized Jace Everett’s Bad Things and I smiled. He turned and faced me.
“Yeah, I did. Uh, she said she couldn’t. Then I told her to go to a friend’s place, and she said she didn’t have any. Mark, do you think…”
“I don’t know, and I have to confess, I have other things on my mind at the moment. I’m going to be initiating foreplay now, Beth. So I’m going to need you to turn your cell phone off. You’ll be busy for quite a while.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice. I reached into my bag and shut off my phone. He came over and put his arms around my waist and pulled me against him. The moment our bodies made contact, I felt his arousal grow. And grow. And grow. Oh my. He wanted me, and he was going to have me. And I was going to have that in me. Oh my. We started to move to the music and then he leaned down and kissed my neck sending a thrill down my spine. I ran my hands over the hard muscles of his back and his hands slid lower to cup my bottom.
“Are you wearing anything under here?” he mumbled against my neck. The vibration tickled.
“No,” I answered, whispering in his ear and pausing to gently bite his lobe. His breathing got heavier and he reached lower and slid his palms up the backs of my thighs, pushing my dress higher and higher. When he got to my bare bottom he groaned, squeezed and pulled my hips against him even tighter. Our mouths found each others and our tongues twisted, rubbing together deliciously. His hands were roaming over my bare body under my dress and mine were tucked down into the back of his pants, kneading that magnificent ass. I wasn’t the only one who had gone commando incidentally.